Diagnostic tools are available for monitoring and detecting fault conditions in electronic devices on-board automotive vehicles. The tools communicate with the vehicle electronic devices under communication protocols dictated by the devices. Such communication protocols may vary significantly over the range of vehicle makes, models, model years, and manufacturers. Furthermore, such communication protocols may vary between various electronic devices on-board an individual vehicle.
Conventional diagnostic tools have limited communication flexibility, wherein a tool may only be capable of communicating with a very limited number of vehicles or vehicle electronic devices. Multiple diagnostic tools or manually-reconfigurable tools may be required when a number of diverse vehicles or devices are to be diagnosed. Diagnostic test time and expense increase significantly when more than one tool is required or when a tool operator must manually reconfigure a tool for communication with various devices. Further, manual reconfiguration may be prone to error.
Absent intervention by the diagnostic tool operator, conventional diagnostic tools are typically incapable of interacting with more than one electronic device on-board a test vehicle at a time. Only after a diagnostic test on one device is complete may another be carried out under such conventional diagnostic tools. This can significantly increase the time required to diagnose an entire vehicle, and especially a vehicle having a number of electronic devices to be tested and a diversity of communication protocols. A diagnostic test may be more thorough or more accurate if communication with more than one device or under more than one communication protocol is provided during the test. Conventional diagnostic tools may not be capable of such communications and thus the effectiveness of conventional testing may be limited.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a single diagnostic tool that may be used for diagnostic testing over a range of vehicles or vehicle electronic devices in which a variety of communication protocols may be required without manual tool reconfiguration or tool substitution. It would further be desirable to support diagnostic testing of devices or systems in an automotive vehicle which requires communication under more than one protocol during a single test.